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Civil
War
Historical
Overview
When
President Lincoln took office, he discovered that Fort Sumter,
which guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor, was running
out of provisions. He informed South Carolina's governor that
he had decided to resupply the fort, but not to dispatch reinforcements
or arms and ammunition. On April 12, 1861, before the supplies
arrived, Confederate forces opened fire on the fort, which surrendered
the next day. Lincoln responded by declaring that an insurrection
existed and calling for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion.
Lincoln's actions led Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Arkansas to leave the Union.
Both
sides expected a brief war. But while the North imposed a naval
blockade and cleared Confederate troops from West Virginia,
Kentucky, and much of Tennessee, hopes for a quick end to the
conflict faded. Several Union attempts to capture the Confederate
capitol at Richmond ended in failure. Despite the capture of
New Orleans, Union efforts to control the Mississippi River
and split the Confederacy into two stalled after the Battle
of Shiloh. Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee's offensive into Maryland
was defeated at the Battle of Antietam.
As
a result of the military stalemate, the Civil War became a total
war that required the mobilization of all resources necessary
for victory. By the summer of 1862, both sides had imposed a
military draft. To finance the war, Congress issued bonds and
paper money; imposed income, inheritance, and corporation taxes;
and established a centralized banking system. Lincoln expanded
the power of the presidency by imposing martial law and imprisoning
about ten thousand people without trial.
At
first, the North fought to preserve the Union, not to free the
slaves. Lincoln handled the slavery issue cautiously because
he did not want to lose support of the border states and pro-Union
Democrats. But as the war dragged on, pressure for abolition
mounted. After the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued
the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was followed
by the formal Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It transformed
the Civil War into a struggle to end slavery and also legitimized
the use of African Americans as troops. Altogether, 186,000
black soldiers served in the Union Army and another 29,000 in
the Navy, accounting for nearly ten percent of all Union forces
and 68,178 of the Union dead or missing. Three-fourths of all
African American troops were former slaves.
In
mid-July 1863, the military balance shifted in the North's favor,
although the outcome was still chancy until November 1864. Following
Confederate victories at Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg
in Virginia, Robert E. Lee marched his army into Pennsylvania,
hoping to demoralize the northern public and prompt British
and French intervention to end the war. At the Battle of Gettysburg,
Lee suffered nearly 25,000 casualties and was never able to
launch another major offensive. At the same time, the Union
army captured Vicksburg, gaining control of the Mississippi
River.
Nevertheless,
before the capture of Atlanta in September 1864, Lincoln expected
a war weary public to elect Democratic candidate General George
McClellan president, who would likely end the Civil War through
negotiations and preserve slavery. During the last stages of
the conflict, William Tecumseh Sherman's army marched through
Georgia, while Ulysses S. Grant forced Lee's army back toward
the Confederate capitol of Richmond. So desperate was the South's
plight that, in March 1865, the Confederate Congress authorized
the use of slave troops. On April 9, 1865, Lee and his army,
faced with encirclement and having been reduced to 25,000 men,
surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Debating
the Issues
The
Civil War is the crucial, defining event in American history.
It would determine whether the nation would remain part slave
and part free.
1.
Why did white Southerners in 1860 feel so embattled that they
saw only one course open to them - secession?
2.
What advantages and disadvantages did the Union and Confederacy
each possess at the start of the Civil War?
The
North had a larger population, more industry, a superior transportation
system, and an existing army and navy. The South had a population
skilled in the use of firearms and only had to wage a defensive
war.
3.
Why was the Civil War more deadly than past wars?
Because
new weapons were much more lethal and accurate than earlier
weapons; and because the Civil War expanded warfare beyond
the battlefield, creating total war.
4.
Ask your students which of the following two viewpoints on the
"Emancipation Proclamation" is most accurate.
In
October 1862, The London Times dismissed the preliminary emancipation
proclamation as an empty gesture. "Where he has no power
Mr. Lincoln will set the Negroes free," the newspaper
commented; "where he retains power he will consider them
as slaves. This is more like a Chinaman beating his two swords
together to frighten his enemy than like an earnest man pressing
forward his cause."
The
American philosopher, orator, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson
took a very different point of view: "The force of the
act is that it commits the country to ... justice.... Done
it cannot be undone.... The ... act makes clear that the lives
of our heroes have not been sacrificed in vain ... It makes
a victory of our defeats. Our hurts are healed. The health
of the nation is repaired."
5.
Read your students these two viewpoints on war. Which do they
think is most accurate?
In
1862, Robert E. Lee wrote: "It is well that war is so
terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."
In
1879, William Tecumseh Sherman declared: "It is only
those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks
and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance,
more desolation. War is hell."
What
If?
How
would American history been different if:
1.
Britain had decided to recognize the Confederacy?
2.
George B. McClellan had been elected president in 1864?
3.
Lincoln had not been assassinated?
Making
Ethical Judgements
1.
Was the outcome of the Civil War worth its costs?
2.
General William Tecumseh Sherman used total war against the
South's population. In order to crush peoples' will to fight,
he destroyed peoples' crops, their transportation, and many
of their towns. Do you think that such destruction can be justified
in times of war? Why or why not?
3.
How do you think an assassination, like Lincoln's, alters the
course of history?
4.
Should the South have been punished for secession and the Civil
War? How?
Analyzing
Primary Sources
Americans
tend to think of our country as one committed to tolerance,
negotiation, and compromise. In 1861, however, the mechanisms
of compromise broke down and the result was a prolonged war
that cost more than 600,000 lives. A key question that The Boisterous
Sea of Liberty addresses is why the war lasted as long as it
did and why it was accompanied with a will to kill and destroy.
Among the questions that the sources address are: Why did the
North ultimately insist on unconditional victory? Why did the
war bring about the greatest social revolution in American history
- the emancipation of slaves?
Document
8
In
general, President Lincoln handled the slavery issue cautiously
in order to avoid alienating the border states. Why do you think
that he authorized the execution of an illegal slave trader?
What does this action tell us about his attitude toward slavery?
Document
14
Why
did President Lincoln dismiss Major John J. Key from military
service? Did the President made the right decision?
He
dismissed Key because the major had failed to follow up on
the American victory at Antietam.
Document
28
What
does Christian M. Epperly's letter suggest about the state of
Southern morale in August 1863?
That
there was a deepening sense of defeatism, reinforced by wartime
inflation.
Document
29
What
does Abram Bogart's letter tell us about the grim realities
of wartime as Union forces attempted to conquer Charleston,
South Carolina?
He
offers a graphic description of awful smells and the sight
of bodies torn apart.
Document
31
How
does the Western Sanitary Commission describe the plight of
African American wartime refugees?
Most
are poorly clad, inadequately housed, and sleep on the ground.
Document
40
Compare
and contrast the Democratic and Republican platforms of 1864.
The
Democratic platform condemns "four years of failure to
restore the Union by experiment of war." The Republican
platform demands the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy;
supports the Emancipation Proclamation; and favors a constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery.
Document
47
What
does Edwin H. McCaleb's letter suggest about the problems the
country would face in reconstructing the South?
That
many white Southerners expected the government to maintain
white supremacy in the South and adopt "a magnanimous
merciful & conciliatory" set of policies.
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